--- title: "Luminar's customers and its dispute with Volvo Cars" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/luminar-technologies/customers/ as_of: 2026-10-15 keywords: ["Luminar Technologies","Austin Russell","Gores Metropoulos","Alec Gores","Legacy Luminar","LAZR","lidar","Class B common stock","Volvo Cars","Luminar Semiconductor","Quantum Computing Inc.","MicroVision","Chapter 11","plan of liquidation","Special Investigation Committee","Jun Hong Heng","Crescent Cove","GVA Auto","GVA Capital","Russell AI Labs"] --- # Luminar's customers and its dispute with Volvo Cars **Question.** Who were Luminar's customers, and what happened in the Volvo dispute? **Answer.** Luminar supplied lidar to Volvo Cars under a 2020 framework purchase agreement, first for the Volvo EX90, and its ten largest customers accounted for between 66% and 94% of its revenue in each year from 2020 to 2024. According to Luminar's Chapter 11 disclosure statement, Polestar discontinued its lidar option and Mercedes-Benz terminated its development and supply agreement in November 2024. In late 2025 Luminar and Volvo each said the other had breached the Volvo agreement and Volvo gave notice purporting to terminate it; no court or arbitral decision appears in the retained records, and the debtors preserved their claims against Volvo. ## Volvo Cars and the other automakers - Analysis: When the merger closed in December 2020 Luminar said it was partnered with seven of the ten largest global automakers and had 50 partners in total. Among them it cited what it called the first industry-wide framework vendor contract in the autonomous space, awarded by Volvo Cars in May 2020 with production expected from 2022, a strategic agreement with Daimler Truck AG in October 2020 and a sales agreement with Mobileye in November 2020. That was the company's own description at the time of the merger; its exhibit list dates the framework purchase agreement with Volvo Car Corporation March 23, 2020, and the terms of the Daimler Truck and Mobileye agreements are not in the retained records. [src-011] - Analysis: The framework purchase agreement with Volvo Car Corporation, dated March 23, 2020, was amended on June 24, 2021. Under it Luminar worked with Volvo and supplied hardware and software for integration into Volvo's global consumer vehicle platform; its lidar was first fitted to the Volvo EX90, and in March 2025 Luminar announced the Volvo ES90 as the second Volvo model to carry it. In March 2020, in connection with an engineering services contract, Luminar issued Volvo Car Technology Fund AB warrants to buy up to 4,089,280 Class A shares at $3.1769 a share, vesting in two tranches on commercial production and delivery milestones; their $2.9 million grant-date fair value was treated as a reduction of revenue. The share number and price are as stated in the 2022 annual report and are not adjusted for later changes in the share count. [src-035] [src-034] - Analysis: Polestar Automotive Holding UK PLC disclosed in September 2021 that it would integrate Luminar's technology in future production vehicles, and in October 2022 announced Luminar lidar as an option on the Polestar 3 from the second quarter of 2023. According to Luminar's Chapter 11 disclosure statement, after repeated project delays Polestar discontinued the offering because the vehicle's software could not use the lidar features, and the contract terminated; that reason is Luminar's account, and Polestar's account is not in the retained records. Luminar announced a partnership with Mercedes-Benz in January 2022 to develop automated-driving technology for Mercedes passenger cars, and in early 2023 Mercedes indicated it planned to offer Luminar lidar as optional equipment across many of its next-generation vehicle lines by mid-decade. According to the same court filing by Luminar, Mercedes terminated the development and supply agreement for breach in November 2024 after Luminar failed to meet ambitious requirements; Mercedes-Benz's account is not in the retained records. The two companies signed a non-exclusive development agreement for Halo in March 2025, but according to the December 2025 disclosure statement Luminar had no go-forward projects with Mercedes. In March 2025 Luminar also announced a collaboration with Caterpillar Inc. to integrate its lidar into Caterpillar's next-generation autonomous solution, with two Iris units on each Caterpillar off-highway truck. [src-015] [src-034] ## How concentrated the revenue was - Analysis: Before the merger, the private Luminar company's ten largest customers accounted for 91% of its revenue in 2018 and 79% in 2019, and Volvo, Toyota and Northrop Grumman each accounted for more than 10% in those years; the merger registration statement names them only as "Volvo", "Toyota" and "Northrop Grumman", without the legal entities. Luminar's ten largest customers accounted for 94% of revenue in 2020, 87% in 2021, 69% in 2022, 66% in 2023 and 70% in 2024. Customers above 10% of annual revenue were Volvo in 2020; Daimler and Volvo in 2021; Daimler and Scale.AI in 2022 and 2023; and Scale.AI in 2024. The annual reports name "Daimler" without identifying which Daimler company was the customer. The largest single customer accounted for 64% of revenue in 2020, 42% in 2021 and 21% in 2022. [src-039] [src-035] [src-036] - Analysis: Luminar's 2025 annual report does not name its largest customers: customer A of the Autonomy Solutions segment accounted for 35% of revenue in 2023 and 39% in 2024, customer B for 11% in 2023, and customers A and C for 16% and 29% in 2025. Customers C and D held 17% and 11% of receivables at December 31, 2025, customers A and C 32% and 22% a year earlier, and customers B and A 40% and 33% at September 30, 2025. Sales to international customers were 71% of Luminar's revenue in 2020, 29% in 2021 and 14% in 2022, with Europe and the Middle East at 65%, 20% and 5%; North America accounted for 92% of revenue in 2023, 95% in 2024 and 79% in 2025. [src-034] [src-037] [src-035] ## Contract manufacturers - Analysis: Luminar outsourced series production of its Iris sensor under contract manufacturing agreements signed in 2021: Fabrinet assembled and tested the transceiver sub-component, and Celestica carried out final assembly and testing at a dedicated Celestica-owned plant in Mexico, where production for the lead customer began in 2024. In 2023 Luminar contracted TPK to build and operate an additional high-volume facility in Asia, and in 2024 it agreed to set up an engineering centre in China staffed by TPK. On November 1, 2025 Celestica gave notice terminating its master services agreement and equipment and tooling agreement with a Luminar subsidiary. After the Chapter 11 filing Luminar was evaluating a new agreement with Celestica or a move of sensor testing and assembly to another manufacturer. [src-036] [src-034] ## The Volvo dispute, 2024–2026 - Analysis: According to Luminar's December 2025 Chapter 11 disclosure statement, Volvo had been expected to make Luminar's lidar part of the standard safety package of the EX90; Luminar showed in 2024 that it could make the 100,000-plus lidar components Volvo required for a full year's production, but Volvo bought fewer than 10,000 over the next 18 months. Luminar says Volvo cut its expected 2024 Iris volume by about 75% in early 2024 without prior notice while saying it still expected to meet lifetime volumes, and in September 2025 said that from April 2026 Iris would only be an option, reducing estimated lifetime volumes by about 90%, and that it would not use lidar in its next vehicle generation as a cost-cutting measure. This is Luminar's account in its own court filing; in its October 30, 2025 Form 8-K Luminar described Volvo's next-generation decision as deferred from 2027 to 2029 at the earliest, and Volvo's own account of the volumes and of its earlier statements is not in the retained records. Volvo, for its part, gave notice on November 14, 2025 purporting to terminate the agreement, alleging breach of contract by Luminar. [src-015] [src-020] - Analysis: Luminar notified Volvo on October 3, 2025 that Volvo had breached the framework purchase agreement by buying far below its estimated volumes and by failing to negotiate in good faith. In a current report dated October 30, 2025 it disclosed a claim against Volvo for significant damages and suspended further Iris commitments to Volvo pending resolution; it had also stopped payments for Iris products for Volvo, which led its principal Iris sensor supplier to send it a notice of breach. The November 14, 2025 notice from Volvo covered the agreement including Iris supply for Volvo's SPA2 programme. Volvo alleged that Luminar was in breach of contract, while Luminar maintained that Volvo was in breach and claimed damages; each side's position is its own assertion, and no court or arbitral decision on the dispute appears in the retained records. After the termination, according to the debtors, Volvo's engineering division asked Luminar for further software and firmware releases, under a new agreement funded as non-recurring engineering, to complete the validation and certification of functional safety; the debtors described the future of the collaboration as uncertain. Their schedules of assets filed on January 9, 2026 list a breach-of-contract claim of undetermined amount against Volvo Car Corporation and Volvo Car US LLC, and the schedule of retained causes of action filed in March 2026 preserved their claims against Volvo Car Corporation for breach of the March 2020 framework purchase agreement. [src-015] [src-034] [src-020] [src-046] [src-051] ## Sources - [src-011] Luminar Technologies, Inc. Form 8-K reporting completion of the business combination (December 2, 2020), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2020-12-08 - [src-035] Luminar Technologies, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2023-02 - [src-034] Luminar Technologies, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2026-03 - [src-015] Disclosure statement for the joint Chapter 11 plan of Luminar Technologies, Inc. and its debtor affiliates, filed as Exhibit 99.2 to a Form 8-K, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2025-12-30 - [src-039] Gores Metropoulos, Inc. Amendment No. 2 to Form S-4 registration statement (Registration No. 333-248794) for the merger with Luminar, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2020-10-22 - [src-036] Luminar Technologies, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2025-03 - [src-037] Luminar Technologies, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2025-11 - [src-020] Luminar Technologies, Inc. Form 8-K on preliminary third-quarter 2025 results and strategic alternatives (October 30, 2025), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2025-10-30 - [src-046] Court record source · src-046 - [src-051] Court record source · src-051